THE GIVER
By Lois Lowry
Houghton Mifflin, 1993
Category: Middle grade fiction
Re-reading books is a luxury I don’t often indulge in, but this weekend—between a birthday sleepover (six kids arrived at my house Friday at 5pm for dinner … and my husband did NOT because his plane from Chicago was delayed) and writing remarks for the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award banquet (they are written, but are they worthy?) and yet another case of strep throat (sigh)—I re-read THE GIVER.
If ever there was a weekend to be transported to another world, a world where life is perfect, where pain is not allowed, where the role of each and every citizen is defined, and where appropriate words for every occasion are pre-determined, this was it. I was struck all over again at the frightening appeal of Jonas’ perfect world, and by his ability to recognize its fatal flaws.
As I typed up this entry, I noticed that among the many accolades bestowed upon THE GIVER was a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor. I wonder what Lois Lowry said to the crowd gathered at the Athenaeum in 1993. Do you suppose she fretted over her words?